Saturday, August 30, 2008

A Gamer's Bill of Rights: should there be a corresponding one for MMO gamers?

Source: Brad Wardell at www.edge-online.com


A Bill of Rights for console and PC gamers? Now that there's quite an interesting idea, the more so when you tool your perspective around for a bit and think about turning this Bill of Rights into a springboard toward putting together something similar for Massively Multiplayer Online Games.

Let's look at the Gamer's Bill of Rights in some detail. I believe that item Three should have the most application to the MMO environment.

Gamer's Bill of Rights, Three: Gamers shall have the right to expect meaningful updates after a game's release.

When this is applied to MMOs I believe that there will be a number of implications that should be taken into consideration by the developer of an MMO game.

MMO updates should have some frequency, since no one likes to be stuck at the endgame when there is clearly room for expansion.

The updates should include fixes for any bugs and problems in-game, and should be applied in timely fashion in order to keep the game running properly.

The content of such updates should be balanced between the needs of the newbies - since there are always newbies in MMOs - and the high-level players.

And the updates should definitely include constant beefing up against illegal and third-party programs [RMT-bots-broad-spammers, I rest my case].

If you were to make suggestions for an MMO Gamer's Bill of Rights, what would
you consider as an inviolable right? Let's talk about it! Share your views in the comments!

3 comments:

Lance Tan Ong said...

Honestly, I seriously do not like the concept of botting. It's simply a spit in the face to players who actually work hard to beef up their character/s fair and square.

But if I were to focus on an MMO BoR, then ethics should be on top of the list, not only in a PC-based OL game, but in console online gaming as well. I cannot fathom how many people would tend to use racial and discriminatory words to make themselves feel tough. O_o

cracksys said...

No, don't start on sudden need for MMO gamer's right. Offline PC games has suffered enough from the likes of MMO and console games.

PJ Punla said...

@ lance

ethics first, then respect. we should treat them as two separate things for this purpose since they are equally important and need to be recognized as both rights and responsibilities.

@ cracksys

you seem biased against MMOs. for your information, in the Philippines offline PC games have not really suffered from the "rivalry" with console games and with MMOs. why do you say they suffer?